1. Field of the Invention
The subject invention is directed to mounts for positioning optics in a desired orientation, and more particularly, to a ruggedized two-axis optical beam steering device for use in military, commercial and/or laboratory applications.
2. Description of Related Art
Gimbaled optical mounts for steering laser beams are well known in the art, as disclosed for example in U.S. Pat. No. 4,854,687 to Fletcher. Many commercially available off-the-shelf optical mounts are designed for bench top use and provide direct access to the mechanisms for making precision adjustments to the position of the optical component associated therewith. Thus, a system that employs off-the-shelf optical mounts will either have those mounts located in the open or the system will be designed to allow ready access to each mount, which may require a system designer to provide a relatively substantial amount of space for each mount.
Most beam steering systems require multiple optical mounts positioned at different angles in order to steer an optical beam from a source to a desired location. Thus, a significant amount of space and access in many directions is required to make adjustments to the beam steering components. These spatial issues become most problematic when the optical mount is employed in applications such as aircraft that employ optical guidance, navigation, control, tracking systems, air data sensing, ice detection, water droplet size sensing, water content sensing and imaging, where the amount of space that is available to house the optical mount and ready access thereto is extremely limited.
Furthermore, many prior art off-the-shelf optical mounts are not designed to operate within or survive the harsh environments normally encountered in military applications involving aircraft and laser guided munitions. Indeed, they often use light springs to hold components together, and can even require significant potting or epoxy for locking the components in place to prevent them from moving once adjusted.
Many prior art optical mounts utilize three adjustment points to achieve two-axes of adjustment. This creates cross-coupling in at least one of the axes (i.e., one adjustment changes the angle of the mount around two axes), which is a disadvantage. In addition, the mechanism for locking the optical steering components on certain prior art optical mounts can alter or disrupt a previously adjusted set position of the optical component.
There is clearly a need in the art for ruggedized optical beam steering device that is relatively easy to manufacture and construct, and that can be employed in the harsh environments often encountered in applications involving aircraft, missiles and projectiles, where the available space and ready access to the optical steering device is limited.
It is therefore an object of the subject invention to provide an optical mount that is adapted and configured to hold up under the harsh conditions encountered in aerospace applications. It is a further object of the subject invention to provide an optical mount for positioning an optical component about two orthogonal axes without causing cross-coupling at the optical surface of the component, and to provide a two-axis optical mount that can be mechanically locked without altering any previously adjusted angular positions of the optical component.